Google Winding Down Motorola in S. Korea, Laying Off About 500

Google’s post-acquisition reorganization of Motorola Mobility rolls on, leaving more layoffs and office closures in its wake. The search behemoth confirmed Monday that its Motorola Mobility division will shut down most of its South Korean operations in 2013.

The move, which will mostly affect Motorola’s R&D and consumer mobile device marketing organizations, will eliminate an estimated 500 jobs in South Korea. Once it’s completed, only Motorola’s Home business and a portion of its iDEN operations will continue in Korea. Google described it as a “difficult but necessary decision.”

News of the cuts follows an August regulatory filing from Google that described a restructuring that would eliminate about 4,000 jobs at Motorola Mobility, which Google acquired for $12.5 billion in August of 2011.

“These changes are designed to return Motorola’s mobile devices unit to profitability, after it lost money in fourteen of the last sixteen quarters,” Google said in the filing. “That said, investors should expect to see significant revenue variability for Motorola for several quarters. While lower expenses are likely to lag the immediate negative impact to revenue, Google sees these actions as a key step for Motorola to achieve sustainable profitability.”

AllThingsD by Writer

AllThingsD.com is a Web site devoted to news, analysis and opinion on technology, the Internet and media. But it is different from other sites in this space. It is a fusion of different media styles, different topics, different formats and different sources. Read more »